Between school and work: New perspectives on transfer and boundary-crossing

This volume presents the research outcomes of Working Group 2 of Cost Action A11, 'Flexibility, transferability, mobility as targets of vocational education and training'. The group focused on the issue of transfer of learning in vocational education and training and the development of new conceptual tools for the promotion of transformative learning. The book presents an overview of different theoretical approaches to transfer of knowledge and skill, including recent attempts at reconceptualisation. The emphasis is on a perception of learning as boundary crossing between contexts. It is argued that this process is not just the transfer of intact knowledge and skills from task to task or from the school to the workplace, but that as evidence increasingly shows in the process of transfer knowledge and contexts are changed. The chapters are: From transfer to boundary-crossing between school and work as a tool for developing vocational education: an introduction / Terttu Tuomi-Grohn, Yrjo Engestrom and Michael Young. Part one, 'Boundary-crossing as a theoretical basis for research on transfer', contains: Conceptualizing transfer: from standard notions to developmental perspectives / Turttu Tuomi-Grohn and Yrjo Engestrom; Consequential transitions: a developmental view of knowledge propagation through social organizations / King Beach; Transfer and transition in vocational education: some theoretical considerations / David Guile and Michael Young. Part two, 'Learning and transfer in vocational education', contains: Exploration of an industrial enterprise as a method of boundary-crossing in vocational education / Barbel Furstenau; Developing competence during practice periods: the learner's perspective / Johan van der Sanden and Christa Teurlings; Curriculum-embedded mastery learning as a tool for fostering transfer / Frank Achtenhagen; Boundary-crossing in the context of intercultural learning / Susanne Weber; 'Speaking from experience': boundary-crossing within a pre-vocational education programme in Ireland / Gary Granville and Mary Reilly; Developmental transfer as a goal of internship in practical nursing / Terttu Tuomi-Grohn; Promoting developmental transfer in vocational teacher education / Pirjo Lambert. Part three, 'Learning in workplace', contains: Learning in working life: from theory to practice / Petra Angervall and Per-Olof Thang; A model for analyzing knowledge content and processes of learning a trade within alternance vocational training / Annalisa Sannino, Alain Trognon and Lara Dessagne; Workplace learning across activity systems: a case study of sales engineers / Sten R. Ludvigsen, Anton Havnes and Leif Chr. Lahn; Epilogue: from transfer to boundary-crossing / Roger Saljo.